Bottle lifter and carrier



March 18, 1947. T, w- MULLEN BOTTLE LIFTER AND CARRIER Filed Dec. 22, 1944 ghyll A "F l MII@ f MMM JN0/@NEX Patented Mar. 18, 1947 Price BOTTLE LIFTER AND CARRIER Thomas W. Mullen, Evansville, Ind. Application December 22, 1944, Serial No. 569,364

1A Claim. l

This invention relates to means for carrying a group of bottles by grasping them about their necks, and has for a primary object the forming of such carrying means out cfa durable material as opposed to the heretofore commonly used liber or cardboard, whereby the carrier may have an exceedingly long life and will stand considerable abuse and yet remain in a workable condition.

A further primary object of the invention is to embody the carrier in a unique form which will lend itself to quantity production7 permitting the carrier to be made and distributed at an exceedingly relatively low cost.

These and other important objects of the lnvention including ease and certainty of operation and security against accidental release of one or more ofthe bottles will become apparent to those versed in the art in the following description of one particular form of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a View in side elevation of a structure embodying the invention and carrying a number of bottles;

Fig. 2, a view in end elevation;

Fig. 3, a top plan view;

Fig. 4, a view in transverse vertical section on the line 4 4 in Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5, a view in transverse vertical section on the line 5 5 in Fig. 3 with the latch member shifted to a release position.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts throughout the several views in the drawing. A body member or plate Hl is formed out of any suitable material which will insure a suiiicient degree of stiffness to prevent bending thereof under bottle loads. This material may be any suitable metal where the plate i is to be pressed or stamped, or it may be any of the various plastics setting to rigid form. As illustrated, the plate l is formed of metal and has a stillened downturned peripheral encircling iiange l I therearound. A plurality of holes I2, herein shown as three in number, are formed in longitudinal alignment to one side of the centerline of the plate Ill, and a like number of holes I3 are formed in the plate I 0 on the other side of the center line. In each instance, a downturned flange I4 is provided around the holes or openings I2 and i3 through the plate l0, not only to stiifen the plate but also to provide a somewhat extended contacting surface exceeding the thickness of the plate I I3 itself. These openings l2 and I3 have a diameter which will permit the mouth ends of bottles I5 to pass therethrough, the diameters only slightly exceeding that of the caps` I6 and the enlarged portion I'I below the cap I6 in each instance and the lesser diameter portion I8 of the bottle neck.

A carrying handle i 9 is provided and has downturned legs attached to the plate i0 in any suitable manner, one such attachment being by welding. This handle I 9 is positioned centrally of the longitudinal center line of the plate lll to extend upwardly therefrom. On the one side of the handle i9 is mounted a bar 28 to extend partly across the holes I2 and to be hinged from its side toward the handle I9 in any suitable manner such as by tongues 22 of metal cut from the plate l0 and rolled around through slots in the bar 20 to form in effect hinges, one such hinge being at each end of the handle i9. These hinges are so formed as to permit the bar 2i! to lift and drop freely without frictional restraint. In the same manner a bar 23 is positioned to have its inner longitudinal edge normally ab-ut the downturned legs of the handle I9 the same as the bar 2l) does on the other side of the handle I9. The bar 23 extends outwardly over the holes I3 and is hinged to the plate ii) toward each end by overturned tongues 24, two in number in the present showing, turned upwardly from the plate lil and around through slots in the bar.

Preferably the to-p side of the plate lil is recessed longitudinally thereof a transverse width suicient to permit the bars 20 and 23 to lie normally therein, Fig. 4, so that the top faces of those bars come substantially within the plane of the balance of the top side of the plate I0. Also, these bars 20 ad 23 are preferably notched centrally of the holes I2 and I3 in each instance as indicated in Fig. 3. To retain the bars 20 and 23 in their normal down positions, some suitable latch device is employed. One workable form is illustrated in the drawing to consist of a spring tongue 25 secured by an upper end to the handle i9 and extending diagonally downwardly and outwardly therefrom at an end of the handle to have a foot of the tongue suillciently wide to extend by portions over both bars 2U and 23, Fig. 3. As long as the tongue Z5 is in that position, the lower end thereof being in substantial contact with the top faces of those bars, the bars 20 and 23 will be restrained against upward swinging. To permit upward swinging of those bars, the tongue 25 is pressed by its lower end toward the downturned end of the handle I9 sufficiently to bring its lower end into registery with the slots 26 and 21 provided respectively in the bars 2l? and 23, whereupon the two bars may be swung upwardly since the tongue 25 ls thereby effectively removed from the paths of the two bars. When the bars are allowed to drop downwardly to rest on the plate I0, the tongue 25 may be released so that it may return to its normal position as indicated in Figs. l and 3.

The structure thus described is used by placing thereover a group of bottles, such for example as six aligned three in a row, whereby the holes l2 and i3 are brought into registry over the two rows and then the carrier is allowed vto drop downwardly over the top ends oi' those bottles with the tongue 25 placed toward the handle I9 so that the bars 22 and 23 may swing upwardly as indicated in Fig. 5 to give sufficient effective openings to allow the carrier to travel on down on to the necks of the bottles sufficiently to carry the outer free longitudinal edges of the bars 20 and 23 below the bottle enlarged ends Il. Thereupon, the handle i9 may be pulled upwardly, and in so doing the edges of the hars 2i! and 23 will yslide along the necks o the bottles le until they strike the bottles under the portion l1 forcing the bottles relatively outwardly within the limits of the holes i2 and i3, one row from the other and finally allowing the bars 29 and 23 to drop down to their normal positions flush with the top face of the plate it, the notches in the two bars permitting this action. In these positions of the bars and the plate is, the bars 29 and 23 bear against the bottles under the enlarged bottle end il on the inner sides and those saine bottles have their outer portions raised over the peripheral portions about the holes l2 and i3 in each instance so that the bottles may then be picked up and carried about at will without any danger of their falling from 'the plate ld. Now should the bottles be set down and the handle i9 released, the bottles cannot become disengaged 4from the carrier plate i9 since the tongue 25 would be released to hold the bars 23 and 23 in their normal positions. To release the bottles, the tongue 25 is pressed in as above indicated whereby one or more bottles on one side may be taken 'from the plate Ill or all of them as may be desired, by lifting the bar on the side selected.

While I'have herein shown and described my invention in the one particular form, it is obvious that structural changes may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I therefore do not desire to be limited to that precise form beyond the limitations as may be imposed by the following claim.

I claim:

For carrying bottles each having an annular shoulder adjacent the mouth ends, a member having a plurality of bottle receiving openings therethrough of diameters exceeding those of said shoulders, said openings being centrally aligned on a line across said member; a bar hinged to said member on an axis substantially parallel to said line to have an edge portion lap over said holes a distance suicient to reduce the effective openings of said holes to diameters less than said shoulder diameters and exceeding the diameters of the bottles immediately below said shoulders, said bar being biased to said hole overlapping position; said member having a second series of holes therethrough aligned on a common line parallel to said iirst common line; a second bar hinged to said member to overlap said second holes in the same manner as said rst bar overlaps the rst mentioned holes; and handle means nXed to said member and extending between said two bars to form an abutment for the inner opposing edges of said bar; and a spring attached by an upper end to said handle and extending downwardly by a lower end over portions of said two bars along their inner opposing edges, said bar inner edges having entering slot spaced from the normal position of said spring end, whereby said 'spring may be deflected to said slot positions to have said spring end enter thereon upon lifting of the bars.

THOMAS W. MULLEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Niunber Name Date 689,694 Snow et al Dec. 24, 1901 1,411,695 Hackett Apr. 4, 1922 1,828,416 Kane et al Oct. 20, 1931 2,007,664 Shipley July 2, 1935 2,301,179 l-Iutafl Nov. 1o, 1942 2,309,395 Hutai -1 Jan. 26, 1943 2,363,180 Haugner Nov. 21, 1944 2,385,997 Leggett et al. Oct. 2, 1945 

